New Union Square Incubator From the TechStars Network Is Taking Applications From Health Startups

Betabeat has been trying to warn you that the healthcare revolution was coming to tech industry. But Blueprint Health might finally be able to get you out from behind your standing desks and pay attention. Xconomy reports that Blueprint, a member of the TechStars Network, is opening an incubator in January and already taking applications for health-related ventures.

The TechStars connection comes in because members of the network share best practices across accelerators. In keeping with that model, startups get $20,000 in seed funding and Blueprint takes 6 percent equity. Partner Brad Weinberg, who started his first company, Shape Up, in 2006, says Blueprint, which expects to get 300 applications for 10 spots in the inaugural class, has raised $400,000 and is setting up “a really cool space” in Union Square. But like TechStars, the big draw seems to be the mentors. They include two techies Betabeat has profiled recently, ZocDoc co-founder Oliver Kharrza and Future Well’s Jay Parkinson, as well as experts from Pfizer and VCs from Bessemer, Google Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, and Spark.

This reminded us of an interesting conversation we had with Cornell’s Daniel Huttenlocher, Dean of Computing and Information Science. He said Cornell picked “health informatics” as one of the interdisciplinary hubs the school wanted to focus on for its tech campus proposal because that’s where the market was headed.

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